For heaven sake they need a butterfly garden too! Have fun!

Oh boy! Child-friendly plants. Let me think for a few minutes and get back to you. (Heh, heh!)

Ricky,
You stop that! We're gonna strap you in the middle of a playground with kids yelling in your ear and covering you with playground sand.
Hey,guys what else can we do to Ricky for being so kid unfriendly all the time?
Felix

Hey Felix, we could make him smoke banana leaves :-)

Whatever Ricky suggest I would stay far away from :-) Perfect for my yard but probably not the kind of play ground plants you want :-)

Hey! I wasn't gonna suggest anything like Poison Ivy or Opuntia. I was thinking more along the lines of Agaves and Bromeliads; colorful stuff. Kids like color, right? And I mean, no Carrisa or Bougainvillea, okay? But some nice Robellenii for shade for the little tots, that'd work.

Boy,Ricky do we know you buddy.
felix

I remember someone had mentioned sunflowers for a similar project not too long ago. That sounds so cool to me.

Anna

Park Seeds has a collection that is called "Eat your weird vegetables" that sounded cool to me. Just a thought.

Sunflower TeePee!!!! Plant a circle of sunflowers and also some type of vine plant among them so you can turn it into a teepee as it gets tall.

Lettuce, Turnips and radishes are particularly fast plants if not very exciting.

snow peas are good for cooler weather but beans are good as it gets warmer. Something like yardlong beans might be fun for kids and they seem to like the heat down here. I like the purple pod varieties.

Squash and Zucchini are pretty quick though not all that kid friendly as the plants have hairs on them that tend to irritate the skin. Of course I've noticed the same situation with Okra and my skin.

Sweet potatoes are a good plant for summer down here and it is ever so easy to start more plants from the potatoes or by rooting the vines. They are easy to dig if planted in loose compost enriched soil and usually provide an abundant harvest. I've been making sweet potato chips by dehydrating steemed slices of sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are very healthy to eat.

I've got lots of Aloe pups I would be willing to share thought they are not really a veggie so much as just a useful plant.

Nasturtiums are a fun edible flower that thrive on neglect.

Please post again when you are looking for fall and winter plants as there are many many good fun cool weather crops for the kids to grow. Broccoli just loves freezing weather down here it seems. As does Kale and Kohlrabi. Those are all good hand snacks along with carrots and even turnips. Spinach and lettuce does well in cool weater as do peas.

good luck

Need pots to plant in? Check with the deli in every supermarket in town. Ask for the empty frosting buckets. Wash well and drill holes in the bottoms for drainage.
Starbucks will gladly give you coffee grounds for your compost pile, bin, whatever.
I hope to have some jicama seedlings in another few weeks. Will be glad to share. They will need something to climb up. Baby (short) carrots should do well in five gallon buckets.
More as the ideas come to me. cora

Thanks guys!

The teachers are already excited from seeing the extra plants from my own apartment garden I brought to start off with. Right now, that just consist of a couple of husky cherry's, two other southern variety tomato plants, some ozark strawberries, a few honey dew and crimson sweet water melon, and some left over struggling cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and buttercrest lettuce starts left over from my home depot binges. I also have about 9 cheyenne pepper plants which I have to section off for the elementary aged students.

But with all of your suggestions I think I can focus it more based on the areas I have. The first shovel goes in on monday so I hope I can have pics up soon after to help describe better.

There is a roughtly 10x10 old sandbox no longer used. It's against the western fence (with a few trees) with clear eastern sky, with the school building to the south. It doesn't seem as FULL SUN as some of the other areas. I also have a slight concern for the leaves & insects hiding in the trees on our neighbors side of the fence. Originally thought it would be the perfect strawberry patch, but now I'm thinking it might be my best bet at squeezing some greens out of the remainding season. The plan is to dick out the sand (its down at least 3 feet) layer some gravel (necessary?), then compost and top soil. Only thing I've every used as mulch was red landscaping mulch. Would like to try something else.

I have an archway climbing structure thats currently in full sun (but movable) that I think would be great for any vining/trailing plants. I think it would be beautiful covered in butterfly attracting flowers (girls), but think it would make a nice "cave" of berries (boys & girls).

There's an old plastic car that sits on the ground, large enough for maybe three kids to sit it. I want to fill it very lushly with flowers that do well in bouquets.

There's a separate mini-playground for our infants and toddlers. They're play space is mainly for motor and sensory development. It's also mostly shaded. Can anything grow there? I know most herbs are full sun, or else I'd primarily plant bunches of strong scented and multi-textured herbs for smelling and touching. Are there any other plants that will grow with muted sun that are fragrant or soft/rough/hairy, etc. I also read about a "tickle" plant or something that moves when u touch it.

The old playground landscape used tires to divide areas. We're digging them up and painting them to build towers for our sweet and other potatoes.

I'm thinking of a container garden for cherry tomatoes. The only ones I have are red so I have to start looking for southern varieties in different colors and tastes for the children to explore. I'm also looking for a multitude of different containers. The icing buckets, old trash cans, bath tubs, sinks, fish tanks, wheel barrels.

Unfortunately, the rest may end up in raised beds. Which seems like a slight bit of a hassle. The land next to the potatoes is mostly old wood mulch and dirt and I have to have it dug down and leveled anyway so it would be great to have it dug deep enough for top soil, compost and in ground planting. However, a portable classroom building will be placed there by august. So I'd only get the next couple of months worth of growing out of it. Seems like a lot of trouble for one growing season. What do you guys think?

If anything, the suggestions of corn, edible flowers, colorful beans, and the amazing sounding sun flower teepee would be likely be the additional plants.

I'm really excited it. If i can get this much going, the fall season will be greatly expanded. An option thats on the fence, but pretty much headed to the chopping block because of my own inexperience is a "potpourri" garden. My sister thought it would be nice if some of the plants the children had would be fragrant enough to be dried and given to their parents as bags of potpourri? Anybody know enough about that to point me in the right direction?

Thanks for ALL the suggestions guys. This is a HUGE project, especially for me to have just started gardening in december. I know i need to utilize the extension office as well but I'd rather know what I could and would like to do first. Good news though, from how this turns out, a local church may want me to help them start a large vegetable garden to contribute to a neighborhood vegetable stand and food bank. Yay! More overwhelming gardening plans! lol

Lefran

You could ask the Master Gardeners in you county for help. Who knows maybe one or two would pitch in and help or offer some plants.

My first planting season at my new house, I simply plunked cardboard produce boxes and other cardboard boxes down, filled them with free compost from my county and planted in them. Might not have been great but it did work.

I wouldn't go to much trouble to dig down and add gravel unless the ground is clay. I usually lay down cardboard to reduce weeds then I mound mushroom compost or free compost from the county and plant in that. It is a kinda raised bed without the costly boarder materials.

Before growing food in tires, look into what possible chemicals could leach out into the soil. The tires might be more appropriate for ornamental pretty flowers than for food.

Shade plants..... Parsley seems to like shade down here. It might not be strongly fragrant but safe enough for little ones. Aloe also likes shade though it isn't all that soft to the touch it might still be nice to have on hand.